There are few things worse for a quilter that having a couple minutes to sew only to get to your machine and find a pile of your husband’s blue jeans to patch!
Today, I was greeted by two pair. UGH!! Patching jeans is probably one of worst domestic chores I perform. I hate changing thread. I hate pinning the patch in. I hate the tight space I am forced to try to sew it. I hate breaking needles…but mostly I hate that it keeps me from quilting. When I patch jeans, everyone in the house knows that I am doing it because I am a huge whiner.
After doing my usual grumbling and complaining, I started in on the jeans. I got to thinking about my mom, who I can honestly say I NEVER heard complain. She patched and patched and patched jeans. She pinned the patch in, changed thread, worked in tight spaces and broke needles, yet no complaining. As I was grumbling, I started remembering what mom’s patches looked like. They were beautiful! Often, unless you looked REALLY closely, you couldn’t even tell the pants were patched.
Mom had about ten different shades of blue thread, all slightly dark or lighter than the spool next to it. She would have one shade of thread in the bobbin and different shade of thread in the top. If there is an art form to patching…Mom was an artist.
She grew up during the depression in a large, poor family. She became a master seamstress by repurposing clothing. She had a special knack for taking a suit jacket, shortening it and adding a couple tucks to make it perfect for her body shape. She even told stories about refitting hand me down bras (mom would have said brassieres) that were given to her from her bustier cousins. She carried her repurposing skills with her long into her adult life.
As I patched I continued to compare my whiney, crabby approach to patching jeans and mom’s artistic way of patching jeans. Amazingly, my crabbiness went away. I got a little more creative with the patch, working to blend my colors, no more white thread on blue jeans for me! Thankfully, no needles broke and do you know what? Patching jeans wasn’t so bad.
I think my attitude was EVERYTHING! If you’re a creative sole like me, domestic chores like patching jeans can be really taxing. By approaching tasks with a good attitude and open mind, maybe my other chores might not be so bad either.
When I am out and about today, I am going to pick up a couple spools of blue thread making sure each is slightly a different shade… I think I am also going to buy my husband a new pair of jeans. I don’t know if I want to strain my “new found attitude” with another patch.
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